December 28, 2016 By Andrea Lobel Shainblum
When Katrina Guy took the first bite of her meal at a popular Toronto restaurant, she immediately knew that something was very wrong. She’d told her server about her fish and shellfish allergies, and was reassured that her meal hadn’t been fried with her allergens, but despite that, her lips and cheeks ...Read more about this post
December 5, 2016 Pests can be a real pain anywhere, and hotels are no exception. Hotels may try to diversify themselves in different ways, and one common option is to add a restaurant. Managers may aspire to develop a five-star restaurant, but this establishment will have no stars if pests are crawling through it. Consider these tips to ...Read more about this post
October 27, 2016 By Dr. Alice Sinia
There are many factors that make a restaurant a success. The obvious include good food, service, location and reputation, but there are other factors that aren’t as evident. Take pest control, for example. It might not be top of mind, but failing to establish an effective pest management program can lead to ...Read more about this post
October 24, 2016 By Kevin Freeborn
Allergies are coming back into the picture in a big way. In 2015, one of the largest surveys conducted on the subject revealed that one in 13 Canadians has a serious food allergy – 7.5 per cent of children and adults. Conscientious restaurateurs, foodservice operators and chains already have some systems in place ...Read more about this post
September 20, 2016 By Merilee Kern
Ultraviolet lamps safeguard every home, restaurant, retail store, business office, school and any other location where people share air and touch the same spaces
The dreadful multistate E. coli outbreak at Chipotle, which hospitalized 21 and prompted JP Morgan analysts to forecast the company will have lost three years of earnings between fiscal years 2014 ...Read more about this post
August 17, 2016 By Alice Sinia
As a restaurant operator, you know how challenging it can be to keep a culture of cleanliness in your kitchen. With staff coming and going, good routines and habits can be hard to reinforce. Errors in kitchen sanitation can lead to bigger issues, such as contaminated food, botched health inspections or worse.
Foodborne illnesses, ...Read more about this post
May 31, 2016 By Dr. Alice Sinia, Ph.D.
Each season brings different challenges when it comes to pest prevention. Some pests that bug you during the spring and summer months are not likely the same pests that will bother you in the fall and winter. For this reason, regardless of the season, it’s important to take a customized approach ...Read more about this post
April 20, 2016 By Kevin Freeborn
When customers visit your restaurant, they notice several things — the taste and presentation of the food, the quality of the service and the ambience created by the lighting and décor. But one thing that may not immediately be apparent is the safety of the food they are about to eat. For any ...Read more about this post
April 8, 2016 By Alice Sinia
For the second consecutive year, Canada has ranked as a top country for LEED® green buildings. LEED is the internationally recognized mark of excellence for green building. Canada’s high ranking could be in response to growing consumer interest in protecting the environment. Food service establishments have followed the overall consumer interest trend of ...Read more about this post
November 24, 2015 By Joni Huang
November 24, 2015 Anaphylaxis, the most serious type of allergic reaction, is a growing public health concern. With an estimated two per cent of Canadians – approximately 700,000 people – at risk of anaphylaxis from food and insect stings1, the restaurant industry faces an increasing number of requests to accommodate food-allergic diners. You can ...Read more about this post
November 2, 2015 How colour coding can help prevent cross-contamination
By Mike Brown
November 2, 2015 Wouldn’t it be great if there was an easy way to alert staff to the potential of cross-contamination? One that could also help cut down on the possibility of allergic reactions in your customers? It turns out that there is – and it has to ...Read more about this post
June 10, 2015 How to get your staff to understand the importance of food safety
By Kevin Freeborn
June 10, 2015 Getting all of your staff on board with food safety plans can be difficult. A study from the University of Guelph looked into why employees may not do what they are supposed to when it comes to implementation. While the ...Read more about this post
October 1, 2014 By Kevin Freeborn
October 1, 2014 Everyone wants to make sure their customers eat safely. While we can’t control what happens when a customer prepares food in their own home, restaurant operators should always do their best to apply what we know about important food safety numbers in order to help reduce the likelihood of someone getting ...Read more about this post
July 7, 2014 By Kevin Freeborn
July 7, 2014 It’s difficult to dispute the fact that pop star Miley Cyrus’s appearance last August on the MTV Video Music Awards attracted worldwide attention. People who already knew her as a sweet Disney child star now perceived her in a new way as grownup sex symbol, and people who had never heard ...Read more about this post
June 27, 2013 By Kevin Freeborn
June 27, 2013 Helping operators prepare food safely
Keeping pace with trends in safe food preparation helps us update and improve the ways in which we educate food handlers. Organizations such as the International Association of Food Protection and their peer-reviewed publications provide great insights into this area, and operators benefit from finding innovative ...Read more about this post
